Monthly Archives: November 2016

November 14, 2016 · 12:19 pm

Why I Might Have Unfollowed You

I have been at this blogging thing for over 2,000 posts and 8 years (May of 2008, actually) and I’ve yet to write a political post. Today may be the closest I’ve come although obviously, I’ve used politics to help us appreciate some business points along the way.

I’ve stopped following a few people on Facebook in the last few days, something I’ve rarely done and usually only when the accounts get filled with spam. The folks I unfollowed are people I know personally – I tend not to be Facebook friends with most business associates or random friends of friends. I unfollowed them because this election has brought out the worst in them. I don’t mean that I disagree with their point of view. Many of my closest friends and I hold diametrically opposed political views. I mean that they’ve stopped supporting their views with any sort of facts and are choosing to ignore the facts when they’re presented to them. They are living in the horrible confirmational bias reality that tells them sexism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism are not only OK but the real voice of America as evidenced by this election.

They go on to criticize people for exercising their First Amendment rights to assemble and protest in vitriolic hateful posts. They continue to post outright lies which are easily disproven with a brief search. They dismiss sources such as CNN and the NY Times as biased and won’t believe anything they report, mostly because they disagree with them. They forget that a majority of America voted for a woman and a liberal agenda. Rather than contemplating how to be inclusive of that agenda as we move forward, they post about “taking back” the country, I guess from the majority who voted the other way. They fail to condemn miscreants who bully, threaten, and harm fellow citizens. Their children behave the same way in school. This is shameful, and denying the facts doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

So I unfollowed them. I welcome the opportunity to discuss politics with folks of all sides as long as we stick to the facts and don’t engage in ad hominem attacks. Hypocrisy is a no-no as well (look up what our newly-elected President was saying four years ago about the unfairness of a popular vote win not translating into an Electoral College win and how people should be marching in the streets!). Those are things I try to do in business as well and so should you. In the meantime, let’s remember that our system doesn’t deny the minority party any ability to influence policy (witness the last 8 years of Republicans slowing/changing/denying Obama‘s policies) and that in two years there’s another chance to change things again.

I’m sorry for using this platform to get his off my chest. I hope you’ve not had to unfollow folks and your friends are more rational than some of mine seem to be. I’m hoping everyone will just calm down a bit and work to be the change each of us wants to see in the world while not building walls. I don’t mean on our borders but those between our fellow citizens and ourselves. The people I unfollowed were doing just that and I’m not having any of it. You?

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November 11, 2016 · 2:43 pm

Hiring Cast Iron People

It’s Foodie Friday and this week I want to dwell on cast iron pans. Hopefully, you own a couple and they’re not sitting in some drawer rusting away. What I’ve been thinking about today is how there are some real misunderstandings about cast iron and how a number of those misunderstandings have equivalencies in how some folks look at employees. Let me explain.

Those of you who don’t use cast iron regularly probably have a few misconceptions. You think that it’s an outdated technology and newer types of pans are lighter and have better non-stick surfaces. You feel that cast iron is temperamental. You can’t wash it with soap and water and as a result, it always has a gross sheen of old cooking oil and other gunk on it. You fear using anything metal on it in case you disrupt the non-stick surface. Finally, you fear cooking acidic food such as tomato sauces in it because the acid will result in an off taste as it interacts with the metal.

None of the above is true. Well, ok. The pans are heavy. I have a 15-inch cast iron skillet that requires a back brace to lift. But it makes a roux like no other pan I have. It took a while to learn how to use cast iron properly. It doesn’t heat evenly but it holds heat fantastically. Because of that, it puts an amazing sear on anything. It can go from stovetop to oven with no fear. I wash mine with soap and water all the time and the non-stick surface is fine. Why? Because it’s not old oil that creates the non-stick. It’s a layer of polymerized oil that has already bonded to the surface. That is also why I cook acidic foods in it without issue as well. The more I fry it in the better that layer becomes. So what does this have to do with business?

We often look at people much as we look at cast iron pans. We think that people who are older can’t have the properties that make them valuable. We hear rumors they’re difficult and that they’re temperamental. We don’t think they are versatile enough to deal with any situation. We hear they require constant care and maintenance. None of those things are true, at least not to a degree that’s any worse than we face with any demographic. The reality is that more experienced people can often perform a multitude of tasks and, like cast iron, get better at them over time and with use.

There is one other thing cast iron has that’s extremely valuable. It’s called emissivity, which is its tendency to expel a lot of heat energy from its surface in the form of radiation. Not only does it cook what’s in contact with its surface but also the food above that surface (think roasting). Who wouldn’t want an employee that radiates high energy to those around them?

If you have a cast iron pan in a closet someplace, take it out, clean it up, reseason it, and put it to work. Not a bad thought for the underutilized experienced employee in your midst either!

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November 10, 2016 · 2:49 pm

Dead Wrong

There are a lot of lessons to be learned from the events of the last couple of days and not all of them pertain to our politics. One question I think I hear from people who fall all across the political spectrum is “how could almost every prediction be so wrong?” After all, putting aside the prognostications of loyalists on either side, none of the pollsters and data-based predictors got this right.

I’m not going to go into the politics but we can learn some valuable business lessons here. I’m not sure this was a case of garbage in, garbage out. That said, it’s clear that the legacy systems from which samples are drawn such as calling landline telephones are not accurate anymore. The real issue is one that I think we have in business, though, which is the inability to tell the difference between “good” data and noise. More importantly, we tend to rely on faulty data to the exclusion of both external factors and our own common sense. We like to tell stories that can be believed, and that happens when the stories echo popular beliefs. We focus on things that have happened already and in so doing we often miss subtle undertones that tell us what went before may not indicate what will come next.

We also suffer from the echo chamber in business. We talk to our coworkers and reinforce faulty information. We tell the tales that our tribe shares and miss those from the outside – the other tribes.

I was just as bad as many of you on Tuesday. I said more than once “unless every poll is dead wrong, it’s going to be a short night.” Well, they were and so was I. While the pollsters will have to wait 4 years to show they’ve learned how data can’t be the only thing we consider as we make decisions about the right path, you get that chance the next time some information crosses your desk. Take it!

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